But the program is billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule - and, many would argue, generations behind SpaceX in innovation. NASA and its major industry partners are simultaneously scrambling to complete their own moon vehicles: the Space Launch System mega-rocket and companion Orion capsule. Launch teams monitor the countdown to the launch of Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket carrying NASA's James Webb Space Telescope on Dec. “They are shitting the bed,” said a top Washington space lobbyist who works for SpaceX’s competitors and asked for anonymity to avoid upsetting his clients. “It is the kind of thing we used to talk about as ‘wouldn’t it be great if we could do these kinds of things?’” said Scott Altman, president of the Space Operating Group at ASRC Federal.īut NASA officials - and their longtime aerospace contractors - are watching with a mix of awe and horror. If he can pull it off, Musk’s previous breakthroughs - electric cars, reusable rockets for launching satellites, the first commercial space capsule to dock with the International Space Station - might seem, by comparison, to be modest achievements. “There might be a few bumps along the way, but it will work.”
Starship is designed to be the first all-purpose space vehicle: a reusable and refuelable spacecraft that can take scores of people and millions of tons of cargo from Earth directly to the moon and eventually Mars - and do it over and over again.
0 kommentar(er)
